It’s been a long while since I did a Singapore Korean restaurant review. Mostly because I’ve been visiting the same few places for my k-food cravings. Now I have to add another one to the list!

Located in Suntec City Tower 3, it’s not the most easy-to-find place. Not just because Suntec is huge on its own, but because the shopfront is actually a K-mart and the restaurant is inside (or behind?) the mart. I’ve actually walked past the mart several times and didn’t realise there was a restaurant o.O. Happy that I was intro-ed to this place by my friend and I’ve since brought another group of friends to eat there 😀

What’s special?

I love how the 반잔 (banchan – side dishes) are free-flow and self-service. There’s 6 in total, and it looks like you will get different types every day. The banchan are GOOD. Nothing very fancy, but it just reminds you of Korea 🙂

I loved the kimchi

Here’s the other banchan I tried on my second visit (there’s unpictured 김 and 김치). It didn’t look that amazing, but it actually was great! I loved the beans, and I think the plus one liked the anchovies one. The bean sprouts were flavourful, unlike the bland ones you get most of the time in not-so-great places. But what was interesting was the 물김치 (I think so? ) with cabbage and cauliflower!!! CAULIFLOWER. I thought it was really weird, but once I took a bite, I was won over. Crunchy, refreshing and the slight sour taste of it is really 开胃 (appetising).

Sorry I don’t know why I’m using 3 languages in a blog post -.-.

Sorry the photo’s not great, but the food was. The plus one was using a spoon for that anchovies banchan!

I would be happy just eating the banchan with a bowl of rice. But obviously the restaurant owners won’t like it 😛

So here’s some of the main dishes I tried!

Kimbab / Ddeokbokki

돼지고기 김밥, 떡볶이

THE KIMBAB. Was good. yeah. There were a few choices and I had pork. The next visit I had ham. Both were good. yeah. I’m not a fan of 떡볶이 (ddeokbokki – rice cakes), so the dish didn’t wow me, but it was still authentic and great. The rice cakes were the right kind of chewy, and there’s also fish cake 어묵 and cabbage in the sauce. I loved dipping the kimbab into the sauce though.

Seafood beancurd stew (순두부찌개) and steamed egg (계란찜)

Now. Don’t leave this place without ordering the 계란찜

Look at that steamed egg! This is steamed egg done right – looking like it’s overflowing 🙂 My friends and I were gushing over the steamed egg. Seriously. While there are an increasing number of k-restaurants in Singapore offering the dish, most of them did not hit the right spot. This did. There’s the slight “burnt” taste to it and you get to scrape off the slightly burnt bottom part. yums. This is how I like my Korean streamed egg.

The seafood beancurd stew was not that best I had, but it was good enough with ample ingredients inside.

Seafood Pancake (해물파전)

The way I like it too. Crispy, light batter, generous serving of seafood inside. The sauce is also exactly how I like it – with loads of chopped spring onions and roasted sesame seeds. I would eat this all by myself.

Fried Mandu

I would definitely order this again.

Sweet and Spicy Fried Chicken

Oh this was good. If you are into spicy stuff. Most 양념 chicken served here are more of the sweet sauce type, so this was surprisingly spicy. The deboned chicken was tender enough, and the skin was still crispy. There’s also some sweet potato and rice cakes (I think) in there. I had the sweet potato and it adds flavour to the dish.

Overall thoughts

I would add this place into my list of go-to k-restaurants in Singapore. Food is more or less reasonably priced. If you sit near the window, you have a great view too. Can’t wait to bring more friends to try!

여러분, 저 돌아왔습니다! Ushered the new year in (albeit a week late) with a new blog layout. It’s been a long while since I actually have enough time + motivation to sit in front of the computer to spruce up the blog and to type an actual blog post.

I actually spent the new year in Osaka, Japan, for a long-awaited well-deserved break. I pretty much spent most of the time doing nothing, taking the same one-hour walk from Namba Subway Station to Umeda Subway Station in the winter cold. One highlight of the trip was to finally visit the Kyoto Aquarium to get my Salamander plushie. Yeah, after 5 years.

Kyoto Aquarium

A couple of photos from the trip 🙂

Cafe time 🙂

Back to language learning. Perhaps the idea of a new year does help in fuelling the motivation and desire for change, but so far I think I’ve done pretty well in trying to spend some time daily on languages. The focuses this year would still be Korean and Japanese. I try to read a couple of Korean articles and watch a few Japanese youtube videos daily. So far it has been working, mainly because I am soo motivated to watch Lucky Bags unboxing (search 2019 福袋開封). I am pretty much obsessed with those videos and yeah, you get to learn quite a few phrases along with the videos.

I’m also trying to learn … Cantonese! 🙂 I’m pretty interested in the tonal aspects of the language and guess what, I bought a Cantonese textbook in Japanese! One of the perks of knowing more languages – you get access to a wider source of learning materials.

Yes, that’s the salamander plushie

For those who were wondering what happened to my so-called attempt to learn Russian last year, I think it was pretty much a failed attempt. I just didn’t have the time, motivation and energy to keep it up. I don’t even remember the Russian alphabet now. ): I would like to go back to it someday, but for 2019, I would focus on the above.

I’m starting to slowly get back to posting about my language learning journey, but I always make it a point to focus on the learning itself. As I start to ease myself back into that familiar (and long-lost) routine and passion of language learning, I would be ready to post more about it again.

The frequency of updating this space is getting really atrocious, but at least I’m still trying.

I see today as an end to 2018, because it’s the start of my leave! 🙂 Finally. The long-awaited leave.

2018 was all about work. I was determined to find some life – signed up for Russian classes and determined to carve out time for language learning. Well, work overtook my life in no time. I’m not proud to say this, but I barely remembered anything from the classes, and I definitely won’t be adding Russian to the list of languages I am proud to say I know / learn.

I will get back to doing textbook reviews soon.

2018 wasn’t good for language learning, but there were great things that happened too. 🙂

Like meeting someone special who shares 3 common languages with me ☺️.

Got a jolt of shock when I saw that the last blog post was in August and the realisation that I have neglected my hobbies (yet) again made my heart sank a little. Couldn’t quite keep up the promise to myself to blog regularly, to learn languages and in general, to have a well-balanced life. Work has been hectic and there are no signs of it slowing down (for now).

Watched a Korean movie yesterday, for the first time in months, and frankly speaking, I was slightly apprehensive just before the movie started. How much of the movie would I understand, without referring to the subs? What if there were actually bits that I couldn’t catch? What if I realise that my Korean proficiency has dropped?

These were the thoughts running in my mind. I think the fear is real. I won’t kid myself that after so many months of not using Korean, my knowledge is still completely intact. I only have myself to blame.

2 years of not travelling to Korea. I wonder how many things have changed. Probably a lot.

Feeling a little scared and yet looking forward to the next trip to Korea, sometime in the future.

Until then, I will have to slowly pick the pieces back again and to find myself in the meantime.

Hello everyone, I should probably stop starting every blog post with “hi it’s been a long time” or something along these lines. 😛 Please tell me that blogs are not dead and there are people who still read them. I love Instagram and other social media where short updates are the norm, but sometimes I just want to have a verbal diarrhoea of sorts, and pen down my incoherent thoughts. And a break from all those curated pics!

It’s August already and I always marvel at how time flies and how little (seemingly) I have accomplished – personal, career, languages and all. (And yet I have been so busy!)

On the longstanding question on whether I should do “something more” with my language skills, I have no answer to that. In fact, I learnt that the more I obsess over it, the unhappier I become and the less motivated I become. So the past year was spent embracing the fact that I have (so far) chosen a path where I don’t really get to use my language skills and the whole point of the decision was so that I can go beyond my comfort zone and gain new experiences. BUT. I also lament the fact that my language skills are getting worse due to the disuse. I can never be satisfied, can I?

Well, then it’s time to do something about it.

Recently, I’ve been pretty good with my routine of doing something related to Korean every day. 🙂 I’ve been reading articles on 경제 and 정치 and they are getting easier!

The next thing to do is to get back to blogging regularly. I know I no longer write informative posts, please bear with me! 🙂

Over the years, I’ve heard so many good things about the Korean Grammar in Use series but didn’t have a chance to use the books. My friend lent her “beginning” book to me last year to review, and I’m ashamed that I sat on it until now. Cos it’s really good. And I’m quite tempted to get the advanced version.

If you are a beginner in Korean and is looking for a grammar-focused book to complement your main textbook, look no further. I wished the book was published when I started learning in 2008 ): It would have been a great resource to use.

Claiming to cover all grammar points in TOPIK level 1 and 2, the book groups the grammar points into clear themes (e.g. particles, negative expressions, expressions of hope) and it’s very easy to find the grammar point via the contents page. It acts as a mini grammar dictionary for beginners, as the explanations are easy to follow for those who are new to the language.

Clear Structure and Explanation

For each grammar point, the book starts off with several example sentences, followed by a clear and detailed explanation of the meaning and its usage. This is followed by short dialogues (2 liners) to illustrate the use of the grammar point, followed by fill-in-the-blank exercises designed to test your understanding (answers provided). For certain grammar points, there is an additional section on explaining the nuances of similar grammar points.

All example sentences and dialogues come with the English translation, making it easy for the beginner learner.

As a additional resource to complement a main textbook, this is great. Period.

Most definitely recommended.

What I like:

Clear structure, easy to follow

Ample sample sentences, explanations are clear and concise

Useful exercises with answer key

Section on explanation of nuance differences for similar grammar points